Spanish Pronunciation

I've found a website that has free Spanish pronunciation practice. If I find more later, I'll list them here.
Spanish Pronunciation from StudySpanish.com

This isn't Chilean pronunciation. It has recordings of both Spanish and Peruvian native speakers. And Peruvian Spanish is close enough to Chilean Castellano. hahaha. Just kidding. But it's what I've found. And it's useful. I've done all the vowel lessons and the "d" and they are useful. More or less what I learned in phonetics class, but with less theory. However, I wish there was an option to record yourself like on www.livemocha.com. I haven't tried the Spanish course on livemocha, because the site was a bit slow yesterday. The classes are really basic, but I wonder if you just do the Spanish speaking, if you can get corrected by natives. I started a Portuguese class on livemocha and it's actually pretty cool, because natives leave you commentary on how well you are doing the exercises: speaking, listening, cuasi-writing, etc. And then you are asked to leave commentary on foreign students' English. So it works out nicely for beginners, but I'm not sure how good it will be for people who just want to work-on/perfect pronunciation.

Check Out these Chilensis Subtitles

I've been away from the computer for a bit, but I'm back and will soon be posting more frequently.
For your Chilensis pleasure, check-out this video (if you haven't already). It showcases the Chilean sense of humor, especially their love of taking a very serious moment and making it into a joke.

There are several versions, including one about Farkas' candidacy for president.

pésimo

pésimo - adv., terribly, couldn't be worse

¿Cómo te fue en el examén?
Pésimo, me eché el ramo.

How did you do on the exam?
Terribly, I failed the class.

Te ves pálido. ¿Cómo te sentis?
Pésimo.

You look palid. How do you feel?
Terribly.

Español regular

mechón

mechón - a hazed, first-year University student in Chile

Qué hediondo los mechones, tienen olor a vinagre. Que asco! Están todos pintados y con la ropa cortado en pedazos.

How smelly the hazed students are, they smell like vinager. How gross! They have paint all over them and their clothing is cut to pieces.

Chilensis, me imagino

cocaví

cocaví - a bag lunch or snack that you bring with you somewhere. It's a quechua word.

Y chicos, llevan cocaví, ya que no hay dónde comer por allí.

And kids, bring a bag lunch, since there's nowhere to eat there.

Chilensis

And here's why I thought it was a mapuche term.

Edited Dec. 3

quedó la escoba

quedó la escoba - It turned into a huge, disorganized mess.
está la escoba - It'a a huge, disorganized mess. (Literally, "It's the broom.")
dejó la escoba - He made a huge, disorganized mess.

etymology: this is good: General Ibañez, Chilean president/dictator from 1927-1931 and 1952-1958 came up with the broom metaphor. His campaign motto was that he was going to "sweep" away the corruption in politics. Apparently, he "swept away" others too, like homosexuals and union workers. Pedro Lemebel's book Tengo Miedo Torero has an especially funny scene where Ibañez is portrayed as a "Loca" sweeping the floor.

llegando a la Plaza Italia en micro, 10 de diciembre, 2006:
Carlos: ¿Qué onda toda esta gente? Está LLENA de gente. ¡Está la escoba! Cuando pasemos por Escuela Militar, estaba colapsada también.
Andrés: ¿Habrá muerto Pinocho?
Carlos: A lo mejor.
Pasajero al lote: Sí, se murió.
Carlos y Andrés: ¡mieeeeeeeerda!

arriving to Plaza Italia on the city bus, December 10, 2006:
Carlos: What's up with all this people? There are people everywhere! It's crazy! When we passed by the Military School, it was totally crazy as well!
Andrés: I wonder if Pinochet died?
Carlos: Probably
random passenger: Yes, he died.
Carlos and Andrés: Holy shit!

The expression is distinctly Chilean.

ladrón

ladrón - an adaptor, (it literally means thief)

¿Podis comprar un ladrón? Quiero poder enchufar la tele y mi celular a la vez.

Can you buy an adaptor? I want to be able to plug in the TV and my cell phone at the same time.

regular Spanish

peludo

peludo - difficult

Laura: Galla, ¡el examen estuvo peludo!
La Jesu: Sí weona, yo cacho que me eché el ramo.
Laura: ¡Ojalá que no! ¿Vamos al Roma para ahogar las penas?
La Jesu: ¡Güena idea! ¡Esta weá me fue como las weas! **

Laura: Girl, the exam was difficult!
La Jesu: Yeah dude, I think I failed the class.
Laura: I hope not! Shall we go to Roma to drown our sorrows?
La Jesu: Good idea! This test went poorly!

sinónimo: brígido

**"me fue como las weas" is vulgar. Literally "It went to me like balls (testicles)."

Chilensis, me imagino

peto

peto - a mini tube top, like this, but a bit more stylish yes.

Venden petos en Patronato.

They sell mini tube tops in Patronato.

aperrado

aperrado/a - adj. to describe a tough or fearless person, especially in front of a particularly difficult situation; someone who does things anyway, against all odds.

Esteban: Mira quien llegó, el Ángel.
la José: Weón aperrado. Lleva toda la semana carreteando.

Esteban: Look who's arrived, Angel.
la José: What a tough guy. He's been partying all week.

Chilenismo

bisagra

bisagra - gossiper, bisagra literally means hinge

Es una bisagra. Si no está en la puerta, está en la ventana.

Another pun: bisagra means hinge and gossiper.
She's a gossiper (hinge). If she's not at the door, she's in the window.

sinonimos: copuchenta, sapa (toad)-Gossipers have big eyes like toads.

most likely Chilenismos

pajero

pajera/o - adj. lazy, literally it describes a person who sits around and masturbates all day, which means they are ultra-lazy. But when I've heard "pajero" used, it means "lazy". Generally people aren't saying they are huge into masturbating, they are saying they are being lazy.

Estoy terrible pajera. No tengo ganas de hacer nada en absoluto.

I'm feeling really lazy. I don't feel like doing anything at all.

A related expression.
Me da paja. - I don't feel like it.
Me dio paja. - I didn't feel like it.

Chilensis, a VULGAR word

This is one of my FAVE chilean words as I identify with it quite a lot. Hehehe.
I'm not pajera all of the time, THANK GOD, but, from time to time, I do come down with cases of pajerez or would it be pajería? Haha. I use this word all of the time.

América

América - 1) the Americas (North and South). In Spanish, "América" refers to one continent that is made up of both North and South America, 2) a woman's name

*Note: América and America are "false friends", as are American and americano/a.

For those of you Latin Americans out there, "America" in English means the United States of America. America, as ONE SINGLE continent does not exist in English, because we are taught that América is composed of two continents North America (including Central America), and South America. "From the 1950s, most United States geographers divided America in two[50] — consistent with modern understanding of geology and plate tectonics. With the addition of Antarctica, this made the seven-continent model. However, this division of America never appealed to Latin America, which saw itself spanning an America that was a single landmass, and there the conception of six continents remains, as it does in other scattered countries." (Continent, wikipedia) Get Alfredo Jaar's two cents here.

Check out this, University of Texas, map site and notice that it lists Africa, Asia, Europe and The Americas as geographical regions. Some people view Eurasia (Europe and Asia) as one continent, and others view it as two. Some people see América as one continent, others as two. Read more about this on the wikipedia continent article.

That said, in ways, I do prefer the Latin American view of América, because it's a cultural one, not taken out of a physical geography class. Americans do have a lot in common with americanos. Our nations are very young. Among us live the indigenous people. We all are here because of a lost sailor named Columbus. We have European ancestors, etc. However, I do find a huge cultural divide between Anglo-Americans and Latin Americans. Culturally they are similar in ways, but they are also different.

I've talked about this a bit in my blog, but its a sort of interstitial and interesting knowledge that many don't seem to have, so that's why I repeat myself.

una ayatola

Es una ayatola. Halla toda las weas malas.

This is another pun-ish expression. Ayatola means ayatollah, but it also sounds like
Halla to' la... (Halla toda la) He finds everything...

He's an ayatollah. He finds everything bad.

choriflay

choriflay - sweet, something entertaining, a novelty (I've heard this used only once, but I rather liked it, so I've included it.) Okay, so I've just found the definition of choriflay in el Diccionario de Modismos Chilenos.

Uuh. Qué bonita la polera¡ Es choriflay¡

Ooh. What a pretty shirt! It's sweet!

sinonimos - bakán, bacán, la raja

la sangre tira

la sangre tira - literally, "blood pulls", it means that a person misses their family simply because they are family

chileno: ¿Cuánto tiempo llevay acá?
gringa: Varios años.
chileno: ¿No echay de menos a tu familia?
gringa: Si, claro.
chileno: Porque la sangre tira.

Chilean: How long have you been here?
Gringa: Several years.
Chilean: Don't you miss your family?
Gringa: Of course.
Chilean: Because blood pulls.

¿Chilenismo?

un pique

un pique - a ways

Vero: ¿Vamos a dodge patas que no tengo plata para la micro?
Maca: Igual es un pique, vamos a llegar a la hora de la callampa.**
Vero: Pero vamos chupando la mamadera que preparamos.
Maca: Güeno ya, vamos andando.


Vero: Shall we go on foot, 'cos I don't have money for the bus.
Maca: Mmm, it's a ways, we're going to arrive really late.
Vero: But we can drink the alcoholic mix we prepared in this bottle as we walk.
Maca: Okay, let's go.

**Note: "la hora de la callampa" is a vulgar expression